VINYL

Artist:  Alio Die & Parallel Worlds
P:  2010
LTD 500
This is the first collaboration by ambient master Alio Die with soundscape creator Parallel Worlds. The unique sound achieved could be described as a hybrid sonic world, made out of bouncing electrons and air vibrations. The modular machines of Parallel Worlds are merged with the acoustic instrumentation and drones of Alio Die, joined by the ethereal voice of the Polish vocalist/composer India Czajkowska, resulting in a surreal, yet down to earth, listening experience. The compositions, being, at times, minimal and calm and, at other times, full of mystical darkness and microsound elements, take the listener into a place were mental and physical boundaries have no need to exist.
“Parallel Worlds’ music is a combination of dreamy/atmospheric textures with analogue rhythms and sequences. Parallel Worlds use mostly huge Analogue Modulars and Analogue Step Sequencers of the past and present, combined with digital synthesis techniques.
Bakis Sirros has been involved in various sound design projects and is the moderator of the Doepfer A100 modular users group, helping in the progress of the tools for experimental electronic music.
He also participates in some other collaboration projects, the project “Interconnected” with the German musician Ingo Zobel (of DRON, Signalform, Self Oscillate, Datasette, etc.) and the project “Memory Geist” with the Australian electronic musician Steve Law (of Zen Paradox, Starseed Transmission, etc).
Since the late '80s, Stefano Musso has recorded deep, evocative experimental ambient and electro-acoustic soundscapes under the name Alio Die.Combining sweeping electronics with found sound and acoustical treatments, he has assembled a rich and varied collection of recordings for such labels as Projekt, Timebase, Heart of Space / Fathom, and his own Hic Sunt Leones label.
His music is a shadowy, cavernous, intensely detailed fusion of acoustical elements, step-and-repeat sample treatments, sparse, echoing percussion, and deep, atmospheric sound design, playing ambient's static tendencies off of shifting melodic and textural passages that suggest movement without sacrificing the music's vague, entropic formlessness.
This is the ltd 500 vinyl version.

Artist:  Alio Die
P: 2006
LTD 400
"Aurea Hora" 10" include two unrealised tracks recorded in 2005.  There is a very special release that includes the two ALIO DIE issues on SmallVoices: the reissue of his fantastic masterpiece "Under an Holy Ritual" (SVV004), very well known ritual ambient music milestone on 12" LP and the totally new and exclusive Alio Die studio work titled "Aurea Hora" (SVV007) released on vinyl 10".
This EP features two exclusive tracks of evocative magmatic soundscapes. The completely new recordings (with drones, loops, zither and integrated radio noises from an old valvular model) are similar to early Alio Die experiments or to ‘Sol Niger’. Entrancing atmospheres will bring you into Stefano’s magical world, which is an oneiric, dreaming journey to the inner self.

Artist:  Alio Die
P: 1992  
LTD 500
Alio Die’s magnum opus on vinyl for the first time. Released on his own label Hic Sunt Leones (1992) and re-released by Projekt (1993), this is a milestone of ritual ambient music. Ghostly incantations from the void, subtly changing frequencies and moods. Dream-inducing atmospheres and introspective drones. Stefano Musso has managed to resurrect unsettling sounds from a pre-Middle Ages epoch and merge them into a pastiche of gripping, evocative pastures for the discerning Ambient fan. Limited to 500 copies.

Artist: Andreas Grosser
P: 1981 / 2018
"Venite Visum" is an anthology of recordings made between 1976 and 1980. Released in 1981 on UK's York House Recordings as a cassette tape only, it features some of the most out there, hypnotic and still state-of-the art space music ever to be known to man. For the first time transferred onto vinyl, compact disc and available as a digital download, it was perhaps best described by one reviewer at the time as; "powerfully relentless, repetitive themes which are constantly embellished and subjected to variations in tone colour and instrumentations. The music surges, coming in waves that approach and recede, but with each surge the waves seem to be higher up the shore." Now carefully transferred from an archived tape, remastered and compiled on a double album for the first time, it features the previously unreleased and not less mesmerizing "The Quantum Leap". Come and visit the hidden and almost forgotten. Berlin School music at its best from the original years and instruments.

Artist: Ian Boddy
P: 2016
DIN 51
LTD 250
Here the Vinyl version!
Ian Boddy, DiN label boss, has never been a musician to rest on his laurels. After the totally analogue, experimental “Tone Science” (DiN49) he now moves onto fresh sonic pastures with his new solo album “As Above So Below”. Boddy has always liked to play around with genres, mixing and matching styles to suit his current frame of mind. On “As Above So Below” he effortlessly combines ambient, classical & electronic music into a seamless, intoxicating sonic landscape. Boddy has been heavily involved in composing library music for many years that feature in TV, films and documentaries and he brings this filmic quality to bear on this suite of six tracks. The title track opens procedures with a great slab of slowly evolving orchestral chords that rise up out of a cold, ethereal atmosphere. Based on Prelude No.1 in C Major by J. S. Bach this awe inspiring opening piece sets the scene for what is to follow. Arpeggiating piano tones, deep Moog basses, ethereal string clusters & analogue sequencers all vie for attention in the following five tracks. The latter are at times light and playful with interlocking layers on tracks such as “Quantum Of Memory” and “The Thaumaturge” whereas an all together darker vibe is created on the deep bass pulses of the brooding track “Shrine”. The final track “One Day” finishes the album off in an emotional manner with rising string melodies above haunting felt piano arpeggios before finally disappearing back into the eerie atmosphere that opened the album. As usual this album will be released in the elegant slimline digipak CD package that followers of DiN will be familiar with. However there will also be a limited edition 180g vinyl album package as well which will include a download code. Both formats will feature a stunning, minimal image by photographic artist Wendy Carroll. Once again DiN have produced a quality release in highly collectable formats for all lovers of modern, ambient electronica.

Artist: Ian Boddy
P: 2013
Boddy started his electronic music career at a Newcastle based arts studio in the late 1970's. His early music was released on cassette by the UK label Mirage.
Year's out of print and never reissued by Boddy himself these seminal early albums are presented in a beautiful 3 LP-Box set. As well as Images, Elements of Chance & Options the music is bolstered by several unreleased tracks from this same time period of 1979 - 1982.

Artist: Jean Michel Jarre
P: 1993   
Chronologie tells the tale of Earth's history from it's creation to the world of today. Not only is Jarre's mastery of sythesizers incredible (as always), but the different musical styles he uses this time are incredibly varied. From the majestic hymns of the genesis to the rap-like beats of the modern world, Jarre manages to capture each era in one wonderful album.

Artist: Jean Michel Jarre
P: 2015
Here Jarre plays together with several different artists to receive new unique tracks.
Here the double Vinyl version!
 

Artist: Jean Michel Jarre
P: 2016
This is the vinyl version.
December 2nd 1976 saw the release of Oxygene 1, which I can say changed my life !

Today, for its 40th anniversary I can reveal that a brand new album, Oxygene 3 will be released on December 2nd 2016.

I don’t necessarily like anniversaries that much…But when I was recording Electronica, two years ago, I did a piece of music (today Oxygene 19) that made me think about what Oxygene could be if I was composing it today. Then I took the 40th anniversary of the first album as a deadline to push myself to see if I could compose this new chapter in six weeks, just like I did for the first one: probably to avoid thinking too much about, whether it was a good idea or not, and also to record everything in one go… The idea was not to copy the first album, but rather keeping the dogma of embarking listeners on a journey from beginning to end with different chapters, all linked to each other.

What made the first Oxygene so different at the time, is probably the minimalist aspect, and the fact that there are almost no drums, and I wanted to keep this approach, creating the groove mainly with the sequences and the structure of the melodies only, through an architecture of sounds.
When I did the first Oxygene in the vinyl days, I had a structure in mind divided in 2 parts, fitting the A&B sides of an album. This time I enjoyed doing the same: one side being darker, the other being brighter. So when I think of it today, Oxygene 3 has actually two sides...

I did the first Oxygene on an 8 track tape recorder with very few instruments, with no other choice than being minimalist. I tried to keep this minimalist approach for Oxygene 3. Some moments are built around one or two elements, like in the first volume.

It was important to me to keep the artwork for Oxygene 3 in line with the two previous albums…40 years ago too, I discovered Michel Granger’s visual universe and immediately felt a total adequacy with the music I was composing. Since then, the cover artwork became famous, like an ecological warning signal, dark and surreal, evoking both outer space and that of our vital living space: this image, for me, has become inseparable from the music.

I wanted the Oxygene 3 visual to remain in that same vein, and hence to re-visit Michel Granger’s original work, simply shifting «photographed-like» from another angle, which was exactly aligned with the approach I had to create this new chapter in music. To this end, I asked Michel Granger’s permission to perform a 3D model of his creation in order to change the angle of the visual, which he amicably accepted.

What an incredible journey Oxygene has been so far. I very much look forward to continuing the Oxygene story with all of you,

Love
Jean-Michel Jarre